Saved by the Duck

Managing multiple workflows in post with Automatic Duck for The Other End of the Line

The Other End of the Line, a romantic comedy shot in India and the U.S., faced more than the usual cross-cultural challenges that come with shooting on two continents. For director Jim Dodson, whose work includes Behind Enemy Lines II, Catch That Kid and Sunset Strip, the bigger headache came during post as the deadline for Cannes rapidly approached.

The lead in Dodson’s film, played by Jesse Metcalf, is an ad man who falls for a credit card phone operator in India. That storyline meant creating a believable ad agency environment and a series of fake commercials that the character could pitch to his clients.

But when it came time to add effects to these commercials in After Effects, Dodson and his team hit a roadblock. The commercials had been edited in Final Cut Pro, a workflow Dodson favors, and consisted of about 250 layers. It would have taken too much time to separate and import each layer individually into After Effects.

“We were really under the gun with this project,” says Dodson. “But with Automatic Duck Pro Import AE, we were able to import 250 layers from Final Cut into After Effects with all the stacks in place and in the right order. Without the plug-in, we wouldn’t have made it in time to Cannes.”

The Duck also saved Dodson time when creating an HD online in Final Cut Pro of the trailer, originally created by an outside shop on the Avid. “Automatic Duck Pro Export FCP read in the Avid timeline and gave us a flawless Final Cut sequence,” he says.

When asked if he will continue to build most of his shots in Final Cut on future projects, Dodson responds with a resounding yes. “The ease of editing, ordering, layering your sequences in FCP? There's no comparison. But then to simply export that sequence and do the real heavy lifting of Motion Graphics/compositing in AE, it's really the best of both worlds! Automatic Duck makes the whole process seamless.”

The film, a co-production of MGM Studios and Hyde Park Entertainment and produced by Hyde Park Entertainment Chairman Ashok Amritraj, opened in limited national release on October 31. It was distributed in the U.S. by BIG Pictures/Reliance BIG Entertainment, the entertainment arm of Indian business conglomerate Reliance Anil Dirubhai Ambani Group in Mumbai.

Reaching out to the Indian ex-pats in the states and in the United Kingdom has been part of the marketing plan from the beginning, says Dodson. “The response has been really heart-warming.”